Systems and methods that quantize digital data, such as video data, are well known. For example, most video, still image and audio compression schemes use some form of quantization to reduce the bandwidth of the compressed data. Most of these known quantization systems are too slow for some applications and/or are too computationally expensive. Thus, it is desirable to provide a quantizer and method that overcomes the problems with the current techniques and it is to this end that the apparatus and method are directed.